marut's cycling & triathlon

2/9/12

Dirty Love

2nd Dirty Trail Series race this Sunday in the North Chagrin. It's a 10k on some of the best singletrack around here. Nate and I are going to be running some xtra mileage after the race too if anyone is interested. Willoughby Brewing Co. later on for some newly brewed IPA's and maybe an Oatmeal Stout.

Giddyup.

1/28/12

Trail runnin

A sold out field gathered this morning for the first race in the Dirty Trail Series. It snowed during the morning and was still snowing a bit when the race started which put a new coating of white stuff over the whole area and made the trails and woods look pretty fresh. This was a prediction run rather than an actual race, which means it doesn't matter what place you finish or what time you run as long as you run as close to your predicted time as you can. The race was a click over 4 miles so I figured I'd be conservative and predict about a 37:30 since there were some pretty long steep climbs on the course, Nate did the same. When we took off the first 1/4 mile was on the road til we hit a set of stairs and then entered into the trails and were still keeping a good steady tempo pace and all sense of time pacing gone completely out the window. Nate, Tony and I said we weren't concerned about getting a prize for being closest to the time, which we most likely wouldn't have hit anyway, so we just kept up the tempo and ran. We ended up finishing with a 33:30, four minutes faster than our predicted time, which was still over an 8 minute mile which was pretty good especially for the trail conditions and the hills that we climbed. We all felt great afterwards and headed out for another hour of running on a different set of trails and finished up running back up Truxell Rd. hill to the entrance road of the Octagon Shelter for a total of 11 miles on a great morning of trail running.

Next up is the Dirty Love 10k (this is not a prediction run, but an actual race) in the North Chagrin trail system on Feb. 12th which we'll be getting xtra mileage in after as well, anyone interested c'mon out.

1/21/12

Dirty Snowflake Prediction Run

Next weekend starts the Dirty Trail Series, which was the XTERRA Trail Series in years past. This first race is being held in the CVNP at the Octagon Shelter on Truxell Rd. This is a prediction run, so all watches, Garmin's, etc. are to be left off so we don't pace ourselves by time, just get out there and run what you think your time will be..Afterward for those that want to run another loop or two or three.... to see the elevation and what not is, donning gps devices are allowed.. Awards will be given out to the top five females and males closest to their estimated times, should be mucho fun.

1/15/12

Snowmagedden 2012

We got hammered with a true Lake Effect snow storm yesterday! Most Cleveland suburb areas saw only a dusting to maybe six inches, out here in the snowbelt we got nearly 36", I can honestly say I never remember getting as much snow as we got yesterday in such a short time. It started snowing at about midnight on Friday and only intensified as the night and day went along, it eased up for about an hour and we thought OK this is good. We finished clearing all the snow in the driveways which took about four hours then went inside to get something to eat. When we looked out the window about an hour later it was like snowmageddon again, this time possibly worse than the first round. We ended cancelling our trip to our Bike Authority Fleet Feet triathlon get together in Brecksville due to the impassible roadways around here and opted for more shoveling to keep what we worked so hard all day long clear. We've actually dodged several large storms like this the past few winters so I guess we were due, the price we pay for living in the snowbelt of North Eastern Ohio.

12/29/11

2012 Calendar

Starting to get things in order for the 2012 season already, yea I know it's not even 2012 yet, but it will be soon.
Going to do an early season triathlon once again in Virginia followed by a 5 or 10k race the next day. We have some nice bike races and some team events that are in the works that should be awesome. I'm going to hit up the Mideast Regional Triathlon Championship race in August and also do a road trip to Burlington Vermont for a lil tri up there as well as some HFP races and the local must do's... (Greater Cleveland, Fairport)

I think I'm going to race most of the NEOCX cross series races this coming season since we are going to travel a little more for triathlon this year, (have to hit up the UCI weekend in Cinci though). We did more out of the area races this season with the Cap City, OVCX and UCI events which equaled a ton of driving. I also plan on doing about the same mountain bike races as I did this season just to keep things fresh and fun.

Training has been pretty smooth, nothing major, just adding some distance to the runs and having fun staying fit.

Happy New Year to everyone and see you all soon.

12/17/11

Running and Swimming

Been putting quite a bit of time in the pool and running once again now that cross is over. The swimming has been going good and I'm feeling pretty smooth in the water. I havent been doing as much trail running as I would have liked but I've been getting some nice miles in on the road. Been working on the leg turnover quite a bit lately as I have been on the bike, pedaling a little higher cadence than usual. The weather has been pretty cooperative lately so we've been on the bike more than normal for this time of the year, which is nice, mostly doing training paced stuff or rolling out on the cross bikes. Today was the first really cold ride of the year when Tony and I started out at about 9:00 am it was only 31* and didn't warm up, but there wasn't much wind which equaled an hour and a half on the cx rigs, then after that we hit up the pool for 1600m with the ole 10x100 w/o since we were kinda time pressed and the geriatric group was starting their water aerobics class.
Looks like a snowy trail run in the morning then off to Akron in the afternoon for an early Christmas party at Wasabi.

Out.

12/5/11

Kings Cross Midwest Regional CX Race

Saturday was the Midwest Regional cross race at Kingswood Park in Mason Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati. The course was awesome, but very muddy, which I guess is what cross it sometimes all about, I just happen to dislike mud quite a bit....OVCX did a nice job on this race and their series, which I happened to race 6 of them.

Nate and I rolled down this weekend together staying at his condo in C-bus on Friday and heading to Cinci early Saturday morning to get in a good warm up ride and run and the plan was to go hard from the start. We lined up with a pretty nice field, some that we've raced with many times before and some we haven't seen before. The gun went off and Nate got the hole shot and never looked back, he took the win in fine fashion on a super muddy, technical course and rode strong. Congrats!

I was in a 4 man group at the start until about the mid point of the race and then we split apart and were on our own. We all seemed to be holding our own and I was looking behind to see where the Pappa Johns rider was and he was really closing in on me. He got around me on a technically muddy corner and gapped me and rolled away eventually catching the 3rd 45+ Master Lou Beckmeyer from 7 Hills Racing. I was now 5th or 6th on the road and 4th Master 45+. I kept on the gas around the corners and kept the speed up on dry/firm sections of the course, and ran the steps and barriers well and rolled in for 5th overall and 4th Master 45+ on a hard fought technical race.

Nate and I decided that we'd had enough mud for the weekend and bagged the Sunday's mud-fest and drove back to C-bus to his condo once again for the night and met Doug on Sunday at his place in New Albany for a nice road ride in great dry conditions. We actually spent quite a bit of time with Doug and Angela this weekend on their home turf spending quality time at the Mellow Mushroom and BJ's Brew House as well as meeting for the ride at Dougs place. It was a nice weekend and time really went quick.

I'm thinking of doing 1 more race this weekend near Pittsburgh but the weather is going to play a major part in my decision if I go or not. If I go it will definitely be my last one, if not, I'll have at least gone out on a decent note.

Later all.

11/21/11

Kirtland Park finale

Yesterday was the final NEOCX race of the season and I think it went out on a good note. On Saturday my family and extended Team Lake Effect family gathered at Kirtland Park to set up for Sundays race. We all hit it very hard, and after about 400 stakes, 5 miles of tape and 7 hours later, the course was complete... (well for the most part). Sunday morning came and we arrived at the park at about 9 am to find Bob Breedlove already warming up on his trainer, alone in the parking lot, now his race doesn't go off for another 2 1/2 hours, so I thought wow, we better get busy on the final touches before everyone else comes rolling in. It wasn't long before the parking lot was full of racers with 2 big food catering trucks parked right in the middle and a line a mile long at registration.

The course was bone dry, technical, hilly and fast which in my opinion made it the perfect cross course and everyone that I talked to said the course was hard, but not extremely hard but fun also, which was the goal.

I raced the combined Masters 35-45+ and was in a tight race the whole way battling for a top 5 spot in the 45+ group while racing hard with the top 2 in the 35+, it was good racing, attacking, exchanging positions, trying to pass and getting shut down etc... everything that good hard racing is all about. In the end I finished 5th Master 45+ and 7th overall in the combined group and was pleased with my placing and effort. The top 5 in the 45+ was Tom Franek, Joe Pollato, Nate Loman, Derek Wilford and me, so those are some pretty tough hombre's ahead of me.

After the Elite race was over, the course that took about 9 hours total to set up was taken down in about 30 minutes. We had so much help from different teams and individuals it was incredible, and a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that helped. Afterwards we all drove over to the Bohemian Center in Slavic Village for the series end awards ceremony and a perfect ending to a great day of racing and a great cyclo cross series.

I ended up finishing 8th overall in the series, but I only raced 6 out of the 12 races, the other races I did were the UCI3 3 day in Cinci, Dayton 2 day and the Columbus 2 day State Champs which were all held on the same days as the NEOCX series races..., so not too bad I guess.

Next up is the Kings Cross Regional Masters weekend in Mason on December 3rd and 4th. then we switch gears and get back into the pool on a regular schedule to get ready for tri season in another 5 months.........